Sidebar on Combat

Combat occurs only between adjacent units, except for artillery fire by the phasing player. There are two types of combat, fire and shock, each with its own CRT. Infantry units may first fire and then engage in shock; cavalry units may only engage in shock; defending artillery may only engage in fire combat. In both shock and fire combat, players may receive multiples of their basic strength, shifts on the relevant columns, and modifications to the die roll. In order to engage in shock combat, units must be attacking into through a frontal hexside and roll less than their commitment rating. (Heavy cavalry need not roll against their commitment rating, however.)

Fire is treated as occurring simultaneously between attacking and defending units, with each player basically toting up his participating strength points and rolling a die on the Fire Table to see what damage he inflicts on his opponent. In fire combat, only defending artillery receives a (2x) multiplication of its basic strength. As to column shifts, players receive a favorable shift of one column if they are firing upon a target of six or more strength points (or a unit in square formation), a cavalry unit, or a routed unit. Players receive an unfavorable shift of one column if they are firing only upon artillery or if their firing unit is in the "D-1" state of disorder. Various terrain effects can also result in unfavorable shifts of one or more columns. As to die-roll modifiers (DRMs), Anglo-Allied infantry units receive a +1 DRM, presumably owing to their two-rank lines or their general steadiness therein. French guns receive a +1 DRM and Prussian artillerymen a -1 DRM, owing to their respectively excellent and poor training, and all artillery firing at its maximum range receives a -1 DRM, owing to the laws of physics.

The results of fire combat upon the enemy may be either a conditional effect on the target’s state of cohesion, an unconditional effect on cohesion, or a step loss or two. (Most units have four steps: full strength, full strength with a step-loss marker, reduced strength, and reduced strength with a step-loss marker.) Conditional effects involve rolling a die against the defender’s cohesion rating, sometimes with various DRMs mandated by the fire combat result.

Shock combat occurs after fire combat. (Infantry may both fire and shock in the same phase.) Basically, the combat involves a single die roll based on the ratio of strength points of attacker to defender (not, as in fire combat, a roll by each player paying little heed to the defender’s numbers). Only attacking cavalry units are subject to multiplications of their base strength: a tripling for heavy cavalry charging the flank of a unit, a doubling for heavy cavalry charging the rear of a unit or for light cavalry charging the flank of a unit, and a halving of the strength of cavalry units charging an infantry unit in square. There is only one column-shifting effect in shock combat: if an attacking unit has moved to make its attack (as opposed to beginning the phase in its hex of attack) and is attacking a defender receiving no terrain benefits, then the odds are rounded in the attacker’s favor; otherwise, the defender receives the benefit of all roundings. There are DRMs a-plenty in shock combat. The attacker benefits, to varying degree, if his attack is made on the flank or rear of unit (or various combinations and permutations of such attacks with each other, or with frontal attacks); if he attacks simultaneously with cavalry and infantry; if heavy cavalry charges light cavalry from any direction, charges a non-square unit frontally, or charges a non-square unit that is in the "D-1" or "D-2" state; if any unit attacks a unit that is routed, disordered, or left with just one step; if the defender is in Extended Line; if the defender has wet fuses; if the attacker is stacked with Ney; if the attacker is of elite or crack elite status; if the attacker is attacking downhill; or if the odds ratio goes off the right-hand (high-odds) end of the odds columns. The defender may benefit from DRMs for terrain and, if Anglo-Allied, the proximity of Wellington. The defender may also benefit from the obverse of phenomena that benefit the attacker: the defender’s own elite or crack elite status, the attacker’s "D-1" status or possession of but one remaining step, having his heavy cavalry attacked by light cavalry, the attacker’s Extended Line formation, the attacker’s wet fuses, and if the odds ratio goes off the left-hand (low-odds) end of the odds columns. All these DRM adjustments are cumulative, although the cumulative impact of all the DRMS, for defender and attacker combined, may not exceed +/- 6.